10 min 42 sec

English

United States

Houston, TX; Director Biography - The Zavitsanos Brothers E9bb7b2c46 headshot The Zavitsanos Brothers are filmmakers based in Houston, Texas. They are currently students attending Boston University and are set to graduate in 2022. They usually get ideas for their films through true stories and experiences; though, in the case of their most recent work, the idea was centered around the personality of an eccentric relative of theirs. The Zavitsanos Brothers directed the micro-doc, Two of Five Million, in 2017, which was selected by over 30 film festivals and won four festivals (including the Heartland Film Festival). Their next experimental short in 2018, Confined, was selected by 8 film festivals (including the SXSW film festival). They enjoyed acting in their sister's homemade movies as young kids and got hooked on filmmaking ever since. Their dream is to one day showcase their passion at a major film festival to shed light on under-represented issues and communities. Director Statement We shot a large chunk of SKAROS in a small village in Greece called Poros, where there currently exist approximately 140 inhabitants — we drew a majority of our cast from this tiny population (it was exciting as many were eager to participate). The village remains stuck in time, seemingly hundreds of years in the past. It is where my dad grew up in the beginning years of his life. In this village, my dad struggled to survive, as there were limited amounts of food, no running water, nor electricity -- and no future for many of these people. Through much adversity, he was fortunate enough to have made it to the United States, being granted citizenship when he was 18 years old. After that, the opportunities were endless. It was pretty cool to go back to our family roots; although we are not famous by any means, our family and the villagers of Poros treated us like celebrities (The president of the village even offered us two horses to use in the film!). There were two factors that inspired us to eventually film SKAROS: first, our Theo Niko's wondrous charisma (which is essentially what we wrote the script around). Without Niko’s personality carrying the movie minute by minute, we would have never chosen the cavernous, story-telling vibe that we did. And second, the incredible, captivating view that lies atop the mountain itself. Seeing it on camera doesn't do it justice. With SKAROS, we really wanted to create a world that felt dense, tense-ridden, and mythological, but could be grounded and perceived on an archetypal scale by steadily unfolding with meaning. What made us most happy was that by the end of production, many villagers had even noted that the production had broken up the typical monotony that exists daily in the village, offering everyone a little more pleasure and fun. We dedicate this film to the people of Poros, including many family members, who humbly and graciously allowed us to film in their peaceful village on a mountaintop of Lefkada, Greece.

The Zavitsanos Brothers